Month: November 2012

Bad weather and poor visibility meant we were grounded for a week. Every morning we would arrive at the airport only to see the fateful words – delayed then cancelled – on the computer screen. Finally, there was a break in the weather and we hurried onto the Twin Otter before the flight was cancelled.

I felt like India Jones climbing into the little tin plane. No sooner as we had taken off, it was time to land. Lukla airport was about half an hour away, nestled 2,800m up in the mountains.I was also slightly nervous. Lukla was named one of the most dangerous airports in the world for its 420m long runway uphill, changeable weather and 2,000m sheer drop off the mountain face. Unlike the modern aircraft that we had flown over from the UK, the Twin Otter was dated but it had a charm to it. The pilots didn’t bother to close the door so I could see straight into the cockpit and out the main window where I saw the Himalayas for the first time.

Wherever there are tourists, there are Irish pubs and Starbucks. Lukla wasn’t any different, except there was also a Scottish pub thrown in for good measure. Living in the mountains is a precarious and hard. We passed boxes asking passing hikers to donate money to rebuild homes which were destroyed by rockfalls. People eke out a living from being a porter, guide or running a teahouse.

High on a hill outside of Kathmandu is one of the holiest and oldest Buddhist sites in Nepal. As the name suggests, the Monkey Temple is full of, well, monkeys (and us). This was day three into my 18 day trip to Everest.

Legend has it that Kathmandu Valley was once a lake with lotus flowers floating around. Bodhisattva (meaning enlightened being) Manjusri saw a bright flame coming out of a lotus that seemed to be planted on a hill. In order to get closer to this lotus, he drained the lake by slashing it with his sword which became the gorge at Chobar – nine kilometers from Kathmandu.

The lotus flower turned into the Swayambhu stupa where both Buddhists and Hindus come to worship. The Tibetan name for the site means ‘Sublime Trees’ and was built some 2000 years ago using 20kg of gold.

On each side of the stupa are a pair of eyes which follow you around and represents wisdom and compassion.

Swayambhu is geared up for tourists and sometimes the monkeys misbehave, so watch out! The site has two entrances with around 365 steps. If you’re in Nepal for to hike the mountains is a gentle introduction to walking.

Today I decided to take a little trip over to Brick Lane for the Sunday market. It’s a vibrant and colourful place, full of fashionable people and tourists alike. Unfortunately – or fortunately – I didn’t have any cash with me which meant I couldn’t buy any of the funky jewellery, artwork or clothes. It also meant I couldn’t buy any of the amazing food on offer either.

Brick Lane – aka Banglatown – has a thriving Bengali community and many curry houses. I popped into The Old Truman Brewery which was once London’s biggest brewery. On Sunday the Sunday (Up)Market takes over where you can buy some art, clothes, jewellery straight from the designers themselves. Sadly I didn’t take any pictures while I was in the (Up)Market as I wasn’t sure if I could and was too shy to ask.

Busy, bustling and noisy, I throughly recommend wondering Brick Lane on a Sunday.

I think it’s fair to say that Hastings is slightly obsessed with pirates. Gathered at Pelham Beach back in the summer, over 14,000 sea dogs, Jack Sparrows, Blue Beards et al descended on the shingle to take the crown from Penzance for the largest gathering of pirates in the same place. There was even a pirate wedding, in which the bride and groom were dressed as pirates (of course) but so were the deputy superintendent registrar and deputy registrar who both got into the spirit.

Sorry Penzance – you might have pasties, but you will never have the pirates. Until next year me hearties.

Taken on the West Hill in Hastings

After chilling out on the West Hill, we went down to the hustle and bustle of George Street.

The Red Arrows put in an appearance. These photos were taken from Bexhill seafront

I would like to say hello to all my new followers and to thank you for all the likes. I was very surprised when I found out that this blog made Freshly Pressed as it has only been going for a couple of days. Apologies if this blog looks sparse, I didn’t think it would get so much interest.

I’m very encouraged that you liked my Lomo Walk in Brighton post and it has given me more confidence in my photography. Those Lomo photos ended up being a very happy mistake and I have been thinking about doing more red scale photos. If I do, you will be the first people to know.

I hope you enjoy my photos and let me know if there is something you would like me to write about. I’m open to all ideas.

Finally Instagram is on the web. Hurrah. Well, it was already on the web, now we all get web profiles. Why they didn’t have a web profile I will never know. It had always baffled me. Sure, I get it that it’s primarily for mobiles – two in every five adults in the UK now own a smartphone – but as yet we haven’t all gone completely phone only.

Having got an Android phone, I only got onto the photo sharing site earlier this year and am very much a convert. I tend to use it to document my life so you’ll find lots of photos of food, shoes, the beach and things I get up to.

Truth be told, I’m not a lover of my phone. I don’t have much memory so can’t download many apps. My phone provider wasn’t much help, so I’m stuck with it until next year. The connection to the internet is very slow so sometimes it takes a while for my photos to load up. I’m still very much a computer user, and I don’t think people will be getting rid of their computers, laptops and tablets very soon.

The BBC reports that campaigners have raised concern about privacy. Don’t forget that Instagram is owned by Facebook who have been plagued by security issues.

The article quotes Nick Pickles from Big Brother Watch: “A web-based service makes it easier to collect lots of information about people using the service and also makes it easier for people to share photos their friends post,” he said.

“Clearly both of these issues raise privacy questions, and time will tell if the company really has any desire to address them.”

Personally, I don’t have any issues with my photos being shared or photos of myself being shared, but then, I guess I have some fairly normal, sensible friends.

Instagram does say on their blog that even though your profile is set to private you will still have a profile but ‘not everyone will be able to see your photos. Your photos will be visible only to logged-in Instagram users you’ve allowed to follow you.’

Will these web profiles mean that I will spend more time on Instagram? I have no idea. I like the fact that I can check in using my laptop, and not have to connect through my little rubbish phone. It’s just another social networking site and after keeping up-to-date with Facebook, Twitter, Google+ I’m not so sure that I can fit another networking site into my day. I’ve taken a step back from Flickr, Tumblr and Pinterest, but I will still be taking photos and posting to Instagram – that’s for certain.

As for privacy I don’t have any major concerns at the moment. Maybe I’m just being too innocent, that or I surrendered certain privacies to the web a very long time ago.

Last year Lomography came to Brighton and let us play with their various cameras and film. I settled on the LCA and a red scale film. By accident, my local photography shop played around with the colour, as they didn’t realise the film that I used. I quite like what they’ve done.